This day was going to be very special, as I was very lucky to win the Limahl Fanclub one year anniversary competition. I was going to have a meet and greet with Limahl in person. But until then the clock was standing still, which is quite usual when your looking forward to something special. I was escorted by my boyfriend, and my brother. We arrived at the entrance of the Bad Segeberg Open Air Theatre at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and soon found other members of the Limahl fan club with Betty and Katja among them.

After about an hour the main door to the Open Air Theater opened, then there was a terrific rush to the main entrance, as all the people outside were trying to be one of the first inside. Most of the audience chose to be seated, but we walked to the safety barrier directly in front of the stage. ;-) We spent the time till the show started, catching up on the latest news, and as we haven’t seen each other for quite a while, there was a lot to talk about.

About 6 o’clock in the evening two DJ’s from the radio station Radio Nora came onto the stage. They were boring me with their dialog just after about 2 minutes! After a while they introduced the first singer, Chris Andrews. Among his hits were “Pretty Belinda” and “Yesterday Man” which the audience enjoyed very much, but it isn’t the sort of music I listen too.

The next group were really the surprise of the evening. The coverband Robbie and the Williams. The lead singer’s voice was definitively near the original vocals of Mr Williams himself. This brought the open air theatre to rumble as the if the real Robbie was present. Then Paul Young started with “Don’t dream it’s over” and “Every time you go away” . Sorry to say his performance wasn’t sung by himself, but with the deceiving playback mode. The next band were The Tremelors on stage. The show was quite good and they enjoyed the stage atmosphere. Between the main groups played Dave Ashby accompanied with his guitar as fill in man, to keep the audience on the move, between the times that the instruments had to be changed for the different groups. The next group were The Hollies. Who took a very along time to get onto the stage, due to the fact that they didn’t want to go on stage directly after the fill in man Dave Ashby. Hmm! The Hollies looked bored on stage and their performance was just the same. Then The Sweet were as next band on stage. They brought the audience to hysterical fits, and nobody could sit down. This must have caused an earthquake somewhere.

We had now almost reached the climax of the evening. But we had to listen once again to Dave Ashby as the stage was being setup to receive Limahl and his band. This would usually take a few songs from Mr Ashby, but due to the fact that a pedal from the guitarist had disappeared, so it all took longer than expected, which made the waiting to a torture. They managed to borrow a pedal from somewhere then…………

Finaly LIMAHL! Starting with his hit “Too Shy” which is just fantastic. We had quite a restricted view to start with, due to the Press photographs, who were crowded in front of us taking photos. They couldn’t find no end to their photo session, but finaly after the begging and pleading from the audience they moved away. At last, a clear view! After the anouncement “Hallo everybody” from Limahl he then moved on to the next song “Thinking Of You” after which came “True”. then his top hit “Neverending story” by which Limahl, made a nervous impression at was constantly looking at his watch to check the time. After the song he then went behind the stage, and came back for the encore and sang “Never Too Much” suddenly then was the show over.

We were standing there and asked each other if that was really the end. What was disappointing, is that quite a few of the 12,000 audience had, during Limahl’s performance, made their way home to avoid the inevitable traffic jam.

As we were definitely sure that Limahl wasn’t coming back on stage, and to confirm this, they started to take the safety barrier in front of the stage apart, we then made our way to the exit. After making sure of a meeting point, where I could find my boyfriend and my brother, I drove with Betty and Katja to Limahl’s hotel.

We had to wait a short time in the hotel lobby, then Limahl came around the corner. I had waited over 20 years for this moment. He was very friendly and had a great sense of humour. He greeted me and said “Hi Mel, nice to meet you.” His words were absorbed due to the fact, that he was chewing on what seemed to be a piece of chocolate. At this point we all started laughing, and then we decided to sit in a comfortable corner of the hotel lounge. Limahl then talked about his performance, of which he was disappointed. He said that if possible it was the last time he would go on stage, as the last performer from this type of concert. The organises told him that he had to finish his performance so that it didn’t extend over the 11°clock evening mark, as every minute past this point they would have to pay an extreme penal fine, and of course he wanted to avoid this. What held back the start of his performance, was the missing guitar pedal. Limahl said “He had to cut the show shorter that expected, and through this we missed out on two songs, because there wasn’t enough time”. Limahl then asked us if we liked his new trousers. He then talked about the afternoon walk he made enjoying the fine weather. Limahl then turned to me and asked me a few question about “What is my occupation, or where I live in Germany and was it my first Limahl concert”? I told him the first time I saw him was in Gronau. He said “The acoustic was terrible in Gronau”. Limahl didn’t know my home town Minden, so I explained it is behind Hannover about 3 to 4 hours from here. As he then heard that I was driving home after the meet and greet Limahl said “ I would not be able to do that, as I’m feeling quite tired.” Limahl then signed an original Limahl cd cover that I had especially brought along with me, and then asked me if I would like an autogrammcard. Of course I replied with a yes. Then he suggested a photo should be taken from the two of us together. I will treasure this photo of course. Limahl sang the start of “One Night With You” holding his nose with his fingers. It sounded like the original so did he use this technic on recording the song? ;-)

Betty and Katja gave Limahl their greetings from the rest of the fanclub members, over which Limahl was very happy. So before saying goodbye Limahl took us all in his arms and asked me “Nice to meet me?” What a question! Of course!!!

How long we were with Limahl is very hard to say, as the time just flew too quickly.

I would like to thank Betty, Katja and Limahl very much, who made the Meet and Greet possible.